Jackie Bird talks about her brush with death in first interview since surgery

TV favourite says a twisted bowel condition made her so ill that doctors told her family to come to her bedside to say their final farewells, but talented surgeons and medical teams were able to save her life.

She said: “It all seems like a horrible dream. It’s only beginning to hit me now that by rights, I shouldn’t be here.

“After the first surgery, doctors told me I was just three hours from death and after the second, my husband revealed he had been asked to gather the family to say their final goodbyes. It’s all quite frightening.

“It’s been quite a year. I certainly didn’t think bringing in 2012 on the Hogmanay show, that it might be my last.

“Christmas this year will be extra special and I will be savouring every minute of 2013. I have been given two second chances and I’m going to use them.”

Jackie, who is married to investment manager Robin Weir, collapsed with ­agonising stomach pains five weeks ago.

At first, she suspected food poisoning but at 3am, she could bear the pain no longer and got her teenage son Jacob to phone NHS24. A doctor called at the house and gave her a pain relief jab but half an hour after she left, Jacob had to call an ambulance.

Jackie, who is also mum to Claudia, 19, said: “I’d had a great day doing publicity shots for the BBC Scotland Hogmanay show. I was all dressed up in a purple sparkly ­outfit and was having great fun sipping ­champagne and having a laugh with colleagues.

“That night, I took really bad pains in my tummy and thought I must have food ­poisoning. After three hours, I was ­screaming in agony and got Jacob to phone NHS24.”

She added: “A doctor came out and thought it was my appendix. She gave me a jab and advised me to go to hospital but I thought a ­painkiller would do the trick.

“It didn’t... and half an hour later, I was crawling about the floor on all fours and Jacob dialled 999.

“I was rushed to Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride and given scans, which proved inconclusive. They gave me morphine but it didn’t touch the pain and I continued to drift in and out of consciousness.” Jackie, who lives near Busby, on the outskirts of ­Glasgow, woke up at 4pm to find her ­husband beside her bed and surgeons wanting to operate.

Jackie Bird and husband Robin Weir celebrating their marriage

She said: “Doctors don’t like performing abdominal ­surgery unless they have to but they went in with a camera and discovered my bowel had twisted and some of my intestines had died due to lack of blood flow. They had to remove 20cm of my large intestine and 10cm of my small. It was major surgery.”

Jackie spent two days in intensive care and a further two days in a high ­dependency unit at Hairmyres, where she was told she had been three hours from death. She said: “I spent a long time in a morphine haze. It was frightening. I was hallucinating and thought people were out to get me.

“When I did come round, I was told just how lucky I was to have got to hospital on time. It was a frightening experience and I was delighted when I got sent home five days after my surgery, to reduce the chances of me picking up an infection.”

But, just a few hours after getting home, Jackie got a searing pain in her stomach and had to lie down. By 5am, her body had gone into shock and her husband went next door to ask their neighbour Angus Macdonald, a colorectal surgeon, for help.

She said: “I was hot and cold all over and my body was bouncing two inches off the ­mattress with the shakes. We didn’t know if this was just one of the side-effects of the surgery but Robin decided to go next door to ask Angus what he thought.

“He took one look at me, put me in the front seat of his car and drove me to Monklands Hospital, where he works.”

Jackie Bird back on her feet at home with cat Bombay

Marathon runner Jackie added: “He handed me over to his colleagues and they started investigating. They were loathe to open me up again as my blood count was quite high due to my fitness levels but eventually they went in.

“My intestines had burst where they had been joined in the previous op and poison was leaking into my body.

“They patched the leak and put in a drain and I woke up in a high dependency unit for the second time in five days.”

Jackie later learned the poison would have killed her and once again she had been hours from death. She said: “After the second ­surgery, I was very frightened. I realised I was not invincible and feared I would never get better.

“Hearing my family had been told to expect the worst was terrible and I don’t know how I would have got through the long nights without a night nurse called Lorraine, who held my hand and gave me cups of tea.

“I was discharged on November 20 and, despite not eating for 10 days, went home one stone heavier than when I went in, due to excess fluid. I spent one more night in hospital with a suspected blood clot but I’m glad to say I’m on the mend.”

Jackie, who is still hoping to be able to host BBC ­Scotland’s Hogmanay show, admits recovery is a slow process but the kindness of family, friends and strangers is a huge help. The news anchor said: “I’m definitely on the mend and although, I miss my sport, I’m not stupid enough to do anything to put my recovery at risk.

“My family have been brilliant and my friends have also kept me going as have ­dozens of folk I don’t know, who have sent me cards and get well wishes.”

Despite being at death’s door twice, Jackie still plays down her ordeal.

She said: “Compared to what other ­people are going through, what has happened to me is nothing. I’m not having to live with cancer. Hopefully, this was just a blip.

“I’m hoping the experience has made me a much more compassionate person. I’m determined there is a silver lining to this.

“I will be more sensitive towards people I interview and realise up to now, my feelings have been superficial. Having been so ill, I now know how ­terrified folk must be and I will be asking very different ­questions in future.

“I’ve also learned people are ­intrinsically good. I will never be able to thank the ­doctors and nurses who cared for me enough, or the strangers who sent me kind words, which have carried me through.”

She added: “Even people I have met through my job have become a tower of strength, including ex-marine Baz ­Barratt, who was seriously injured in an IED blast in Afghanistan, and Korean war veteran Bill Hall

“Superfit Baz is coming down to help me get back in shape and Bill phones me every day to see if I’m okay. It’s times like this, you realise just how wonderful the ­people of this nation are and it makes me proud to be a Scot.”

A killer condition

Some medical studies suggest more than a third of people suffering a twisted bowel do not make it.

The agonising condition stops blood flow to the twisted section of the colon, which resembles a sausage balloon kinked in the middle. Symptoms start quickly, escalate rapidly and demand immediate hospital treatment, usually surgery, to save patients.